1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed in general to communications systems and methods of operating the same. In one embodiment, the present disclosure relates to devices and methods to determine the proximity of client nodes within a wireless-enabled communication environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of mobile devices for inter-personal communication and access to information of all kinds has become increasingly popular in recent years. In general, users of mobile devices largely communicate with a community of interest. In many cases, it is not unusual for members of the community to be within close proximity to one another when communicating.
Nonetheless, traditional wireless communications technologies typically route a communication stream between two mobile devices through a base station or access point, even when they are in close proximity. This approach is wasteful of network resources as it consumes two radio channels corresponding to the access links when one could be sufficient if the mobile devices could communicate with each other directly.
However, there are issues associated with initiating local inter-device links to support device-to-device (D2) communication sessions. For example, mobile devices currently have no way of knowing whether they are close enough to one another for a direct, inter-device communication link to be practical. Furthermore, the proximity of mobile devices is particularly difficult to determine if the devices are within a building or other structure where signals used by common location systems to locate mobile devices, such as Global Positioning System (GPS), are not receivable.